In the new issue of Regulation, economist Pierre Lemieux argues that the recent oil price decline is at least partly the result of increased supply from the extraction of shale oil. The increased supply allows the economy to produce more goods, which benefits some people, if not all of them. Thus, contrary to some commentary in the press, cheaper oil prices cannot harm the economy as a whole.

Two long wars, chronic deficits, the financial crisis, the costly drug war, the growth of executive power under Presidents Bush and Obama, and the revelations about NSA abuses, have given rise to a growing libertarian movement in our country – with a greater focus on individual liberty and less government power. David Boaz’s newly released The Libertarian Mind is a comprehensive guide to the history, philosophy, and growth of the libertarian movement, with incisive analyses of today’s most pressing issues and policies.

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Tag: aca

Chad Henderson is the media’s poster boy for Obamacare. Reporters struggled this week to find individuals who said they had been able to enroll in one of the law’s 36 federally run health-insurance exchanges.

That changed yesterday, when they found Henderson, a 21-year-old student and part-time child-care worker who lives in Georgia and says that he successfully enrolled himself and his father Bill in insurance plans via the online exchange administered at healthcare.gov.

But in an exclusive phone interview this morning with Reason, Chad father’s Bill contradicted virtually every major detail of the story the media can’t get enough of. What’s more, some of the details that Chad has released are also at odds with published rate schedules and how Obamacare officials say the enrollment system works.

Obamacare’s health insurance Exchanges opened for business, in most states, sort of, on Tuesday. Millions of people have reportedly flooded the Exchanges, but have had so much difficulty using the web sites that reporters have had a hard time finding anyone who has successfully enrolled in an Obamacare plan. The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff writes:

Just moments after writing a blog post Thursday morning, about the lack of information on Obamacare enrollees, Enroll America reached out with contact information for Chad Henderson, a 21-year-old in Georgia who had successfully enrolled in coverage on the federal marketplace.

Chad is evidently a scarce commodity.

It was a little difficult to reach Henderson, mostly because so many other reporters wanted to talk to him. “I’m supposed to talk to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a half hour,” Henderson said. “And The Wall Street Journal is supposed to call.”

Luckily, Henderson managed to squeeze me in for a few minutes.

Kliff reports that after a three-hour ordeal, Chad bought an Obamacare plan that cost him $175 per month – pretty steep, considering he makes less than $11,500 per year. His Obamacare premium comes to least 18 percent of his income. And no, Chad is not eligible for subsidies.

Compare that to what Chad could have paid if he bought one of the pre-Obamacare plans still available on eHealthInsurance.com until December 31. The cheapest such plan for someone meeting Chad’s profile is just $44.72 – as little as 5 percent of his annual income and about one-quarter of his Obamacare premium.

I can’t yet say whether Chad’s $175 premium is the lowest-cost plan available to him through the Exchange. (I’m in the process of researching that. Let’s just say it’ll probably take a few hours.) But it’s probably close. The cheapest plan available to him through eHealthInsurance.com after Obamacare’s community-rating price controls take effect in 2014, and drive up premiums for young, healthy people market-wide, is $190.23. That’s with the maximum cost-sharing allowed under Obamacare. So it appears Obamacare quadrupled Chad’s premiums, and Enroll America thinks that is a success story.

To me, the most interesting part is that Chad didn’t buy health insurance when it was available to him for just $45 per month, but did buy it at an unsubsidized $175/month premium. Why? Again, Kliff:

He describes himself as a supporter of President Obama who has anxiously awaited Obamacare’s rollout…

Part of his decision was ideological: He wants the health-care law to succeed.

If the ACA places more of the burden of health care on the poor and the middle class, diverts resources into waste and unnecessary treatments, coddles an industry culture of dangerous sloppiness, and crowds out all other social priorities, then it will have actively hurt the very people it was intended to help.

Goldhill is the CEO of the Game Show Network, a member of the board of the Leapfrog Group, and will speak at a Cato forum on his book tomorrow, Wednesday, September 18, from 12-1:30 p.m. at the Cato Institute. The Brookings Institution’s Kavita Patel and I will provide comments.

Today, I withdrew cash at an ATM and paid bills online, saving myself considerable time not having to stand in line at the bank, as well as the expense of envelopes, stamps, and gas to get to the post office. I called my wife, who was visiting her parents in rural Russia, for five cents a minute. I used a free application on my phone to find a good Italian restaurant, reserve a table, and provide me with a map and directions to get there. At work, I participated in a four-city video conference (the total cost for the hour was $50 – significantly cheaper than flying everyone to one location). I microwaved some leftovers in an oven that cost less than a tank of gas. I watched a movie on my $49 DVD player and a baseball game in high definition on a large-screen TV that I bought this year for a third of what I paid for one of the same size five years ago. I finished my day sitting down to write this chapter on a $1,200 laptop that has two thousand times the processing power of the first desktop computer I bought – for three times the price – in 1989.

I did something else today: I read yet another article explaining that technology is driving up the cost of health care and will continue to do so for a long time.

Cato will host a forum on Goldhill’s eye-opening book on Wednesday at noon, featuring the author, Kavita Patel of the Brookings Institution, and me.

Despite the good intentions of its authors, the ACA is less a reform of our health care system than an extension of its current principles to their logical end…

In a system burdened by complexity, bureaucratic explosion, and lack of innovation, the ACA paves the way for even more rules, many of which are merely mandates for future rules and ever more committees and commissions…

The problem with the ACA isn’t that it represents “government takeover of heath care” or “socialism”…The problem with the ACA is that it’s so old-fashioned.

Register now for Cato’s book forum on Catastrophic Care featuring Goldhill, the Brookings Institution’s Kavita Patel, and me. The forum is this Wednesday, September 18, from 12-1:30pm at the Cato Institute. Click here to register. Seats are limited, so register now.